Your post appears to be one of a number of commonly asked questions about the port city of Boston. Please check the sidebar for visitor information. Also, consider using the search function to see if this question or something similar has been asked on /r/boston in the past. It is best to do some research before posting tourism questions here, as posts are more likely to succeed if they include details such as your interests, which area you are staying in, and more specific questions. Please enjoy this map that we made just for you

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

If you are a museum person or even if you are not I would recommend the MFA and the Isabella Stewart Gardener museum- they are very close to one another as well. Shopping inside the Prudential/Copley mall, walking down Newbury st. Just trying to think of inside ideas for the most part

I’ve been googling but there’s so much info, I’d rather here right from the source. Who knows their city better than you guys right. We’re in town for three days; basically staying smack between TD garden and Quincy market. first day I’m hoping to make a reservation at tavern on the park (I think that’s the name, the one right beside td garden) and then the game.

The next day is wide open , but she’s always wanted to go to Quincy market so I’m thinking after grabbing coffee we’ll have lunch there.

She’s a senior so walking for long periods would be hard for her, but we’re going to take lots of breaks and if need be use public transport. (Basically why I picked the hotel I did, it’s close to the two things she wants to do most)

She basically really loves coffee and people watching, a bit of shopping (not high end) and easy pub food. I don’t think she’d be able to walk the freedom trail but maybe there’s some transport tours running late March?

Appreciate all info. We’re driving from Canada and can’t wait ; my husband and I have been a few times and we just love Boston!

Uber or Lyft may be easier than public transit. Look ahead for which train stations have escalators or elevators, as not all do.

Don’t forget that college hockey is a thing in our fair city.

There is an adorable little coffee shop in the North End, directly across from the Old North Church. Caffe Lil Italy, if I recall correctly. That might be fun for her, and Old North itself is stunning.

Just want to second this, even if you're not an art person go to the Isabella Stewart Gardener museum. There's no other museum like it.

Quincy market's a tourist trap, but I suppose it's an iconic, historical tourist trap. If you want a much better food hall, go to High Street Place, probably the best food hall in metro Boston right now - all the café's there serves great food, beer & wine, as each café specializes & can serve their own alcohol.

Additionally, she'll love the Boston Public Library, when entered from the eastern Trinity Church entrance, as the eastern half might as well be a museum & movie set with its own internal courtyard. Plus it's right next to the Prudential Center & Copley Place malls.

Imagine coming to Boston for the first time, during this Bs season, wanting to see a hockey game, and choosing to spend your time watching BU college hockey lmao

Even if not an Art person, there's plenty to see in the MFA too - statues & other relics from Antiquity.

I agree the MFA is cool, but I'm about as not an art person as there is and I still think the Isabella Stewart Gardener is absolutely a must see above the MFA.

...but maybe that's just because I definitely am a plant person

The Residence at Boylston place. It’s an assisted living facility . Enjoy

In consideration of ticket availability and of the OPs reference to moms limitations an option was offered.

The Trolley tours are hop-on hop-off for 2 consecutive days, if she can navigate the steps to board.

And the library has an elegant Tea Room.

That’s great! Thank you.

Thank you! The museums didn’t come up at all in my searches shockingly. Shopping indoors makes a lot of sense that time of year, adding Copley to the list!

Thank you for the suggestion!

She LOVES touristy things, lol. She is 100% an excited “taking a picture with an iPad” mom. When we went to LA her favorite part was the walk of fame, which couldn’t have been any more cringy tourist. So I’m actually GLAD to hear this haha. She’ll love it. Thanks so much! We’ll add that food Hall to the list as well because traveling and food is big on my list.

Great! Thank you, adding this to the list. We both love a good coffee shop

Better yet go to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall to get the history then go to the Sam Adams tap room for beer and bites

I’ll have to do some research on this. This sounds wild but we don’t have Uber or Lyft or trains or anything like that in our neck of the woods so I want to be confident I can use them before I rely on them.

You had me at tea room!!! That’s great, would never have known that

Well, I've never gone to the ISG; I guess I'll have to correct that someday. :)

And then walk down to Beantown Pub, across the street from Sam Adam’s Grave - where you’ll be drinking a cold Sam Adams across the street from a cold Sam Adams.

Excuse me there tourist, you must not be familiar with the port city of Boston. Nobody here says Beantown. Please enjoy this documentary about our diverse aquatic life.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

The Gardner ‘museum’ is exceptional. It’s an amazing experience and I’d budget several hours. Adding my vote

Based on that (and despite what others have said) I think she'll very much like Quincy Market / Faneuil Hall.

I'll probably get downvoted for this but there's quite a few hop-on-hop-off trolley busses in the city. Not cheap and v. touristy but if she has problems walking she'll be able to see a lot of the main touristy things while sitting.

Late March you might get lucky with decent weather too although it's a bit of a crapshoot that time of year.

The Bruins are home 3/25, 3/28 and 3/30 so you have plenty of options.

The Boston Pride (women's hockey) ends their regular season on 3/12 but they might be in the playoffs when you're here.

Late March might be a bit late for college hockey. The hockey east tournament is scheduled for 3/17 and 3/18.

[deleted]

Look into who is performing at Symphony Hall and/or any of the many theaters in town! All of the larger theatres are gorgeous inside and would surely impress (and provide a chance to sit down inside) just keep an eye on accessibility since a few of the venues don't have elevators to upper levels.

Kinda thinking she is not traveling to Boston to see a Pride game with 200 other people in attendance.

Spring training is a bit of a commute. Fort Byers might be too long of a drive.

You can get tickets to see Blue Man Group or a play at one of the theaters. For classic pub food I personally like the Yard House. For coffee, Pavement coffeehouse or North Street Grill is a nice place for breakfast or brunch.

Late March is good timing if you wanted to take her to a Bruins game - they play 5 of their last 6 at home.

I'd suggest getting tickets sooner rather than later, with their good season this year, the prices might continue to go up.

If costs are an issue, consider taking the train to Providence and seeing their AHL team.

Acey brings up a good point about accessibility at stations, and there will definitely be journeys where Uber/Lyft are the right choice, but going to recommend taking transit as much as you're able!

Don’t underestimate the amount of walking and standing that riding the T will include. Consider getting an Uber/Lyft/Taxi for those times when you’re not next to a T stop and/or your destination isn’t near a T stop.

If she’s a hockey fan, maybe she would like skating? There’s public skate at Steriti Rink and Warrior (where the B’s practice), check their websites for times. There’s also the aquarium, the Museum of Science (including the Omni Theatre), the MFA (I think the Impressionists exhibit will still be up in March), and the Harvard Museum of Natural History (a personal favorite). I usually do an early dinner in the North End before B’s games since it’s walkable—park in the Haymarket garage nearby. House of Art & Craft in Brighton also has candle making classes that I’ve done with friends, which seems like a fun “mom activity” :)

Something to do. Just a suggestion.

The Copley Plaza Mall and the Prudential Mall are connected. You can easily walk between them without going outside.

Though if you want to avail yourselves of the elevator, you should go in the other entrance, since the front entrance requires a bunch of stairs to get to.

Since you are staying near the Garden, bring her to the North End. Good food, good people watching. Paul Revere's house is there and the Old North Church You can see the spire from a distance.Take an Uber if she has to.

There are a couple of theaters downtown.

https://theaters.boston/

Edit: Old

I mean the college hockey offered here is amazing also we house the oldest arena in use for hockey Matthews Arena

Boylston, Bowdoin, and Symphony (EDIT: and Valley Road way out on the Mattapan Line) are the only stations that require you to walk up a large number of steps. Hynes Convention Center has an escalator, and the other Green Line stops that are marked inaccessible are ground-level stops where you need to take a step up into the train but otherwise there's no steps.

Don't be surprised if the weather is surprisingly warm, also Faneuil Hall is pretty cool with of the history and the Boston Commons across the street is the Bull & Finch which if she liked Cheers the Bar that it was based on

Why even make a comment like this?

Sitting in the waiting room at the RMV is something to do also, doesn’t mean it’s fun. You can’t suggest someone that is coming from far away in Canada to go see the bruins, and has 3 days in Boston, to go to a Boston Pride game. If no one here goes to the games, why would someone traveling from far away want to go.

Bro what a shit comment. College hockey is great. Bruins tickets are expensive as hell if you haven't noticed. College game is good value plus way fewer drunken dipshits and the bands are appealing to many people.

Please god take her on a duckboard tour! They should be back on in late March

Within walking distance of the TD garden where game will be is tiny place called Regina Pizza. In the north end. Only pizza but Boston's best and promise worth the wait outside.

Comments hilarious, this subs gone soft

[deleted]

It’s not even a joke, the local high school games are more packed. If you go for the atmosphere, pride games are a horrible suggestion

3/23 is Bruins-Habs (the hockey rivalry, though Habs are baaaad now), and 3/25 is Bruins vs. Lightning (who are typically very good). Highly recommend catching one or both games.

I would recommend college hockey too because it’s super fun here, but it will be over by the .

it’s too late in the season to hear geese honking, but still plenty of cars at it

For some people escalators can be hard — have you never gotten vertigo going up or down the Porter escalators? For people who are slightly unsteady on their feet, that can be magnified. Plus stepping on and off requires timing and that can be challenging for elderly people. If OP’s mother is unsteady, they may do better with elevators (fixed typo).

Yes, that's why I made the distinction, so OP and their mother can make an informed decision.

Wasn't my suggestion. Barking at the wrong person.

Ah, gotcha. Tone didn’t come through so I thought you were saying I was wrong to mention accessibility, since so many people downvoted me.

Check out Ogawa coffee!

A hockey game

Dinner at north end… check out museums at Harvard … possibly the observatory (check and see what/if anything going on there)… if a history buff/reader… take to Concord and check out Walden pond and Louisa may Alcott’s home… Mapparium is also kind of cool…

Go to the Boston public library at Copley while you’re in the area - the architecture is amazing.

Yes if they’re running again at that time, a duckboat tour is a great idea!

Don’t plan on driving around! You’ll have a really bad time.

The sightseeing trolley does run year round. It starts one block from Quincy market, just outside aquarium station. Have a great trip.

I think your comment was extremely helpful, as someone who uses the subway and avoids stations with only stairs. I went to symphony hall twice since living here (3 months now). The second time I got off at the next nearest stop instead of the stairs at symphony. Some people, I think, just enjoy downvoting, and are emboldened to join in once someone has gone first lol! OP, the mbta has a chart I’ve seen which lists all stations and if and how they are accessible.

Dinner at Field & Vine (Somerville), Dear Annie (Cambridge), or Tonino (Jamaica Plain). Beacon Hill Books and waitlist for a table for breakfast or lunch, or you can get coffee takeaway. If you want to grab some cheese, wine, or yummy fancy snacks head to Formaggio Kitchen. As for shopping, explore Back Bay, the South End, or any of the Squares in Cambridge/Somerville (you can get to these parts across the river by the red or green line trains).

So to be honest, I would not recommend eating in Quincy Market - it's not very clean and rats are abundant! (we live in a city, it's close to the water, so to be expected I suppose). If you like beer Sam Adams has a tap room right nearby.

For the North End, if you love seafood you have to eat at Neptune Oyster (for a fancy dinner). Get there early, put your name down if it's super busy, and go wander over to another bar or restaurant on Salem St. or Hanover St. to wait for your table at Neptune's (they'll call you). For a more casual and also incredibly delicious fresh seafood dinner, eat at The Daily Catch - their squid ink pasta is THE BEST. For desserts, I, someone who is part Sicilian, believe the best desserts are at Modern Pastry (they have coffee and drinks too, and a bar downstairs). There are also delicious coffee drinks and cocktails at Caffe Vittoria.

Ok this just took me like 20min to write and I have to start working now, haha - have an amazing trip!!

I sent my young granddaughters a pic of the fountain inside the Copley library, and said can you believe, this is my library?! My son said their jaws dropped and they oohed and ahhed. Don’t miss it. But, if stairs are an issue, use the modern boylston entrance and the elevator to access the old historic building.

Suggestion: Wait until May.

If you're trying to save some cash you can always take the train to Providence and catch the minor league bruins game there. Tickets will be significantly cheaper.

Transit is definitely fun and one of my favorite ways to get to know a city, and Boston’s transit is pretty decent (even with the many recent problems). It’s also got some of the better signage I’ve seen. I was in Seattle last week and took the train from the airport to downtown and back, and nearly got lost both ways even just trying to find the station!

probably to change your plans.

This is great info. We’re coming from Atlantic Canada so we’re used to cold but weren’t quite sure how Boston winter is comparable! I’ve always heard it’s frigid cold

We got our tickets! Right behind the players boxes… she’s so excited!!!

Thank you!!

Great idea! Thank you

We’ve got tickets to the 23rd! Here’s the kicker… my mom is a Habs fan. yes, we are scared of bruins fans LOL but she also likes the bruins, and my aunt who just passed was a huge bruins fan, so she’s wearing a bruins jersey for her. (And also maybe our safety… lol?)

Ooooh thanks! Love that suggestion

Thank you so much for this detailed reply! I’m writing these all down on our list and we’ll see how much we can fit in!

Thank you! Great ideas

Congrats, friend!

The /r/bostonbruins sub is pretty fanatical, I bet they’d love to see/hear about your mom getting to her first B’s game.

You are welçome